Roy

Summer may be here and the time may be right for dancin’ in the streets but, for the time being, I’ve kept a lowish profile; a nasty sore throat, now abating, and migraine hostility have left me wan and delicate.

I’m coming to the end of my Andrew Marr tome, A History of Modern Britain. Out of 600 pages, I note that over one hundred feature the Blair years and I’m ploughing through those now. The Twin Towers have just been attacked and it’s all about to kick off ‘big style’ in Afghanistan. Marr’s appraisal of the Thatcher years has proved interesting; I have ‘views’ on the woman but it was refreshing to read deeper into events such as the Falklands Conflict and the mining strike. The one figure that has truly fascinated me from reading this book is Roy Jenkins. I never knew he was such a liberal Home Secretary in the 1960s, introducing far-reaching legislation and reform on divorce, abortion, homosexual rights and capital and corporal punishment. Beyond this, of course, Jenkins enjoyed tenures as Chancellor, founder and leader of the SDP and President of the EC and must be regarded as one of the most important post-war figures. I’m keen to learn more about him.